Why Customer Engagement is Important? Part 3 – Returns and Refunds

As an entrepreneur in today’s times, it is important to understand the value of customer engagement and how it is linked directly to the success of your business. An interactive relationship with your customers helps boost positive brand loyalty and this goes a long way in boosting the overall credibility of your business.

The advent and consequently, the rise of social media has led to customers having almost direct access to businesses and brands that they purchase from. Leveraging this channel in the most optimal possible way should be an integral part of your business strategy and planning.

While there area number of ways to connect and engage with your customers, social media handles are the most popular and effective. The ease of access and your clientele knowing that they can reach out to you with any sort of comment, suggestion, complaint or idea gives them a feeling of being heard and helps reiterate how important they are to you.

Customer engagement through social media can be promoted in many ways:

By sharing useful content: Good content is a mix of information, releases, your own product promotions and interesting articles or blogs that generate interesting discussions about your industry. Customers get bored with pages that only highlight their products. Think of variety when posting to sustain interest.

Being answerable: This is very critical as a big part of customer engagement includes making sure you reply to any and every comment, rant, review or suggestion that has been posted on your handles. Don’t let this slip and this can really have a negative effect if not taken care of.

Regularity: Find the right balance when it comes to posting. Don’t spam but post regularly enough so that your customers do not forget about you. There is a thin line and it is important to have a dedicated resource looking after your social media platforms.

Customer engagement helps returns and refunds. Here’s how:

Most customers are looking for quick resolution when it comes to returns and refunds. Including this aspect in the customer engagement strategy is a must.

Make it easy- Whether it is online or through a customer call, make it easy for your customers to return products and apply for refunds. Positive customers engagement is fuelled by not just the sale but also the returns that needs o be taken care of very sensitively. In fact, this is one thing that can prove to be the Achilles heels of many a businesses.

Define the terms clearly: Customers need to know what the terms for refund and returns are and this needs to be very clear, transparent and out there through the entire sales process. Find ways to get the information to your clients in advance so that there are no rude surprises for them. This will count as a credible point when it comes to rating your customer engagement.

Staff: Nothing can be more critical to your customer engagement than your staff. And this means both online and offline or via phone. Your staff needs to be knowledgeable about your products and return policies and be able to handle your customers in the utmost polite manner. A bad experience with a staff member can damage the reputation of a business immensely and this is especially true during returns as customers are already on the back foot and anticipating problems. Alternatively, a positive experience here can lead to a very healthy and long customer association.

Evidently, customer engagement cannot be treated as a by the way, one the side kind of activity. It has to be a full blown, thought through process that involves methods that are effective, innovative and garner successful results. There is no running away from this. This concludes our series on Customer Engagement. If you haven’t read the previous articles, you can visit Why Customer Engagement Is Important? Part 1 – Rave Reviews and Rants and Why Customer Engagement Is Important? Part 1 – Revenue Impact. We’d love to know your thoughts in the comments.